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M7: UI Implementation
Requirements
POS UI
a. adjust sell prices and reorder points for each item at a POS (5)
b . sell items at a POS using correct policy (5)
c. view the items currently in the inventory (5)
d. display total cost of the inventory (2)
e. display total market value of the inventory (2)
f. display the items currently on order (2)
g. set/change or display the current sell policy (4)
CCS UI
a. creation/deletion of POS locations (3)
b. creation/deletion of suppliers (3)
c. view reports as detailed in the report section (15 - 5 each)
d. launch the POS UI for a specific POS location (2)
Supplier UI
a. Show supplier inventory (5)
b. Create lots of items (where each lot has a number and a price per item for that lot) (3)
c. View outstanding invoices (those received, but not processed yet) (2)
Our Approach
We already had a nice working GUI from the last portion because we decided it would be the easiest for demo-ing, so M7 was really to fine tune the GUI to get specific functionality like sale policies and reports working. We also changed the GUI buttons around a little bit for usability purposes. Arranging buttons and grouping stuff is easy because you just have to think "what would I do if I saw this as a user" or "does the placement of this button explain what I'm trying to accomplish?"
Recommendations
The hardest parts were the load/saving and the graphs. Load/save, I would say to look at Bob's load/save examples and it should be somewhat clear hwo to implement it. Graphing is harder than it seems, to properly load the different data into the graphs for actual reporting is difficult. It's easy to visualize but hard to literally accomplish. We found that we had to go back in past portions of our code and add new counters and variables to actually do the graphs, so while this is a GUI homework, don't think you're done with the coding. Connecting the GUI to do what your code can do functionality-wise is a difficult process, and you should get started early to see what problems you WILL encounter. Start thinking about reports when you're doing the domain coding!
GOOD UI TIPS:
Minimize usability errors, don't set the user up to make a mistake
Color can be nice, denote groupings of button functionality
Consistency of UI layouts
Buttons do what they actually say they do
Keep it simple
Visual cues, like updating lists
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